My Pastor, Austin Gardner, sent me this article this morning and I believe it is great. I especially like the part about “expository preaching”. It is often said at our church we should be “people of the book”. That is a core value of our church and hopefully every church. For the last month I have been preaching through the book of Galatians. It does not feel like what I am used to in youth ministry. However, it has been some of the most exciting lessons we have had so far. The Word of God knows what teenagers need more then I could ever. One lesson was on salvation and a young man accepted Christ. The next lesson was on the call to preach and a young man has begun talk about his desire to be in the ministry!

I know the following article is much longer then my average post. However, it is worth the time!

It’s Not a Game

Taking Youth Ministry Seriously

Allen Cagle

Associate Pastor, Junior High Ministry

Do you realize that, statistically speaking, the three most important decisions that are

made in one’s life are made before one turns 25?

􀂃 Vocation

􀂃 Marriage

􀂃 Salvation

I am not one who puts too much stock in surveys and statistics. I think they are easy to

manipulate and often are twisted to meet one’s argument. However, there is a statistic

that is thrown out so often that I think it is undeniable. It is undeniable because of its

amazing consistency. That is the age of conversion.

I have heard, just as many of you may have, that up to 90 percent of the people who get

saved do so before age 22. That is a staggering number. Is it true? I don’t know. I did

some surveying of my own, in my circle of people with whom I minister. I found that in

our junior-high staff, of the 29 who answered the survey, 21 were teenagers when they

were saved. On our pastoral staff, 8 of the 14 were saved as teenagers.

If you were to take the number of people who get saved and break down their conversion

dates by age, you’d find that for every decade that passes, the numbers decrease. Is this

important?

Numbers and statistics for the sake of numbers really are not that significant. And let me

be clear: I firmly believe in a sovereign God who can choose to save anyone at any time.

We had a glorious occasion at our church a few months back, when an 88-year-old lady

professed faith in Christ and was baptized. It was awesome! She told of her life before

Christ and how she had spent 80-plus years living for herself and for sin. God radically

changed her heart. I would love to have more stories like that to blow up these statistics!

So, of course God can save anyone.

I do believe that what we see, however, is that God uniquely uses the teenage years to

shape the direction of an individual’s life.

The teenage years are critical. They are shaping years; they are formable and moldable

years. If you ask the average adult what he was doing when he was 23 or 24, he would

pause to think. Or if you ask what happened at 31 or 32, perhaps an even longer pause.

Ask that same person to tell you about the junior-high years. “Oh, junior high!”

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Everyone remembers junior high. Some would rather forget it, but we all have memories

etched in our long-term memory from these years. This is why I think it is so important to

minister effectively and seriously to teenagers.

The title of this seminar is “It’s Not a Game: Taking Youth Ministry Seriously.” We’re

finding fewer and fewer people who desire to truly invest in the lives of teenagers. The

thought of the day parallels the sentiment of Dorothy Fulheim: “Youth is a disease from

which we all recover.” Teenagers often are despised, often regarded as problems and seen

as being in a state of existence that must be corralled and contained.

I will be the first to recognize that ministering to teenagers is unique. It presents unique

challenges and unique needs in ministry. But as we think through how to effectively

minister to teenagers, we must remember that the teenage years historically represent

extremely fertile soil for ministry.

Some of you may have questions about the genuineness of some younger conversions,

particularly in the early teen years and even before that. That’s fine; I probably would

agree with you on many of your objections.

Somewhere between the ages of 11 and 13, it is as if the lights are coming on; this

obviously is associated with the onset of puberty. Students begin to understand sin and

accountability to God, they begin to respect pastors or hate them, and they begin to test

the limits of authority. They start to become vain, to realize the inequalities of life. Some

are short, some are tall, some are strong, some are weak. Life begins to change. The faith

of their parents is under examination, and for the first time (usually) they are starting to

realize that they do not necessarily have to embrace this faith that their family has held to.

“Is this my faith, or is it my parents’?”

The issue isn’t when people get saved; the issue is that this is a vital age at which to be

shepherded.

􀂃 They need help in thinking through these events in their lives.

􀂃 They need assistance in sorting out the changes that are taking place.

􀂃 They need guidance in navigating the difficult culture into which they were born.

The teenage years are supremely important, and we as youth ministers have the privilege

of immersing ourselves in this world and seeking to minister to this group. I want to try to

establish in our minds that teenagers are capable of being saved, capable of serving,

capable of understanding truth, and capable of growing in godliness.

I did a series with our students a few years ago on the teenagers in the Bible. Consider

what teenagers accomplished:

Joseph. At 17 years old, Joseph was a know-it-all punk. His brothers eventually had

enough of it, and they sold him into slavery. God, in His sovereign plan, placed Joseph

there and allowed him to excel in the kingdom so that he quickly climbed the ladder to a

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place of prominence. He then ended up in a precarious situation with Potiphar’s wife. She

tried to get him to sleep with her. He refused her offer: “How then can I do this great

wickedness and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). Joseph was presented with the ultimate

sin opportunity, and he rejected it.

Daniel. He likely was junior-high age when he was deported to a foreign land with his

friends. They were hand-picked by the Chaldeans to learn the ways of the king in the

palace. They were put in a place where their commitment to God would be put to the

ultimate test. Daniel, probably at junior-high age, was placed in a situation with no

parental accountability. This was his chance to sow his wild oats, to pursue any course of

sin that he desired, yet we find a different story. We find in this teenager a resolve that is

a great example to all of us.

David. He went out to face the great Goliath as a shepherd boy. He did not focus his

attention on the seemingly insurmountable odds that faced him, but rather made this great

confession of his faith in God (1 Sam. 17:42–47):

And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a

youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a

dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of

the air and to the beasts of the field.” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to

me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of

the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day

the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your

head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the

birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that

there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not

with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our

hand.”

This teenager knew what it meant to trust in his God.

Josiah. After a difficult family background, he came to the throne at about 18 years old

and served the country well, in a God-honoring way.

And in the New Testament…

Mary. She was a teenager when she bore the Messiah. Her story is one of absolute trust

and obedience to God. She confessed this in a theology-filled monologue called the

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Tremendous article, Trent. Thanks for posting it and passing it along to us. Thought that was funny about being afraid of what a 12 year old thinks. It is funny but often true. May God help us to put the boat out, engage in spiritual conversation, and be willing to challenge them to live for God!